Table of Contents
- Re:
OBITUARY> Passing of Jan Yün-hua 3/15/1923 - 12/31/2018
- JOURNAL
ISSUE>Buddhist Studies Review, 35: Special double issue - Buddhist
Path, Buddhist Teachings: Studies in Memory of L.S. Cousins
Re:
OBITUARY> Passing of Jan Yün-hua 3/15/1923 - 12/31/2018
by Albert Welter
Dr. Yunhua Jan––A Remembrance
At the suggestion of James Benn, I've taken the liberty of writing a remembrance for Dr. Yunhua Jan, who passed away recently at the age of 95, and who many on the list will probably have little of no knowledge of.
Dr. Jan arrived at McMaster University from India at a period when the Religious Studies Department was expanding its Asian Religions offerings. It seems a bit odd in retrospect, but in the late 60’s and 70’s Buddhist Studies in the west rarely extended beyond India to any significant degree, and McMaster’s initiative was hailed as something of an innovative experiment at the time. I was an early guinea pig. I was a student when Dr. Jan was professor there, and I have fond memories of my time with him.
Dr. Jan was a commanding presence in a department where Chinese and East Asian Buddhism occupied but a small niche. Through Dr. Jan’s influence the reputation of Chinese Buddhism in the department began to grow, and Dr. Jan also served as Department Chair for a few years. As anyone who met him observed, his influence was astounding given his struggle to communicate in English. The mangled idiosyncratic English through which he spoke would have proved an insurmountable obstacle to many, both speaker and listener, but the genuine warmth and exuberance of the man who was Dr. Jan could not fail to win his listeners over. As a result, virtually everyone in the department became expert in Dr. Jan’s peculiar lexicon. Remarkably, even undergraduate students became enthralled and bent their ears to take in every word during his lectures. My wife was a student who enjoyed his undergraduate classes and still tells a story about his lecture on Jainism, how he imitated a Jain procession in front of the class, dancing to the sound of music he mimed, taking great care to avoid any hypothetical insects on the floor. Department parties were also greatly enlivened by Dr. Jan’s presence. He frequently took on the role of informal host, offering drinks to any and all. In typically Dr. Jan style, he found a way to play the role with added flourish. Beer he dubbed “history,” wine as “philosophy,” whiskey or other hard liquor as “metaphysics” –– undoubtedly a nod to some of the methodological proclivities in the department of the day.
Above all, Dr. Jan was a consummate scholar. His work on the important Chinese Buddhist scholar and thinker Zongmi (Tsung-mi), coincided with and anticipated much of the later scholarship on this leading figure, both in Japan and the U.S. My own dissertation at McMaster on Yongming Yanshou (Yung-ming Yen-shou), a figure highly influenced by Zongmi, was completed in the wake of Dr. Jan’s work. In my estimation, the best comprehensive introduction to Yongming Yanshou and his thought remains the work by Dr. Jan published in Chinese. Among other works, he also wrote influential articles on Song Buddhist Historiography, and completed a translation of fascicles of an important work on Chinese Buddhist history compiled in the Song Dynasty. Dr. Jan was acknowledged as one of the leading scholars of Chinese Buddhism of his day. His contributions to Etienne Balazs, ed., A Sung Bibliography (Bibliographie des Sung; The Chinese University Press, 1979) remain among the best concise statements of the topics addressed available. He also contributed to William H. Nienhauser, ed., The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature (Indiana University Press, 1986), including an introductory essay on Buddhist Literature (pp. 1-12), and his summary of the influences of Buddhism on Chinese literature (pp. 10-11) remains cogent. To commemorate Dr. Jan’s scholarship, Koichi Shinohara and Gregory Schopen edited a Festschrift volume of essays by prominent scholars entitled From Benares to Beijing: Essay on Buddhism and Chinese Religion (Mosaic Press, 1990) in his honor.
What I remember most about Dr. Jan was that he always seemed most at home in the company of others. There was never a group with which he was not at ease and did not fail to bring his joie de vivre. Over the years, as I have come to know China and Chinese traditions better, I have come to look upon Dr. Jan as an exemplar of a Chinese literatus with an abiding interest in Buddhism, a living window into both Chinese Buddhism’s past and its future. I was fortunate to study under him, especially during a period when access to Chinese scholars interested in Buddhism was so rare.
Albert Welter
Professor and Head, Department of East Asian Studies
University of Arizona
JOURNAL
ISSUE>Buddhist Studies Review, 35: Special double issue - Buddhist Path,
Buddhist Teachings: Studies in Memory of L.S. Cousins
by Peter Harvey
Peter Harvey: Buddhist Studies Review, Journal of the UK Association for Buddhist Studies, Volume 35, Number 1–2, December 2018
Special issue - Buddhist Path, Buddhist Teachings: Studies in Memory of L.S. Cousins
This is now published in its online version ( https://journals.equinoxpub.com/index.php/BSR/issue/archive ) and will then appear in its print version. In September, the contents will also appear in book form as Buddhist Path, Buddhist Teachings: Studies in Memory of L.S. Cousins, published by Equinox, less the book reviews but including 'Lance Cousins: An Obituary, Appreciation and Bibliography', an updated version of what has previously appeared in Buddhist Studies Review .
Contents
Naomi Appleton and Peter Harvey: Editorial, 1-2
Meditation and the Buddhist Path
Peter Harvey: The Four Jhānas and their Qualities in the Pali Tradition, 3-28
Bradley S. Clough: Paths of Monastic Practice from India to Sri Lanka: Responses to L.S. Cousins’ Work on Scholars and Meditators, 29-46
Ajahn Amaro: ‘I’m Not Getting Anywhere with my Meditation …’: Effort, Contentment and Goal-directedness in the Process of Mind-training, 47-64
Comparative Mysticism
Elizabeth J Harris: John of the Cross, the Dark Night of the Soul, and the Jhānas and the Arūpa States: A Critical Comparative Study, 65-80
Rupert Gethin: Emptiness and Unknowing: An Essay in Comparative Mysticism, 81-96
Interpreting Buddhist Teachings
Richard Gombrich: Ambiguity and Ambivalence in Buddhist Treatment of the Dead, 97-110
P. D. Premasiri: The Alagaddūpama Sutta as a Scriptural Source for Understanding the Distinctive Philosophical Standpoint of Early Buddhism, 111-124
Anālayo: An Ekottarika-āgama Discourse Without Parallels: From Perception of Impermanence to the Pure Land, 125-134
Abhidhamma
Tse-fu Kuan: Equal-headed (samasīsin): An Abhidharma Innovation and Commentarial Developments, 135-160
Peter Skilling: Calligraphic Magic: Abhidhamma Inscriptions from Sukhodaya, 161-188
Petra Kieffer-Pülz: The Relation of the Saccasaṅkhepaṭīkā Called Sāratthasālinī to the Vinayavinicchayaṭīkā Called Vinayasāratthasandīpanī, 189-224
Schools and Scriptures
Mark Allon: The Formation of Canons in the Early Indian Nikāyas or Schools in the Light of the New Gāndhārī Manuscript Finds, 225-244
Alexander Wynne: Theriya Networks and the Circulation of the Pali Canon in South Asia: The Vibhajjavādins Reconsidered, 245-260
Literature
Sarah Shaw, Yasodharā in Jātakas, 261-278
Naomi Appleton: Jātaka Stories and Paccekabuddhas in Early Buddhism, 279-292
Review Article
Peter Harvey: Reflections on Eviatar Shulman’s Rethinking the Buddha: Early Buddhist Philosophy as Meditative Perception, 293
Book Reviews
Brides of the Buddha: Nuns’ Stories from the Avadānaśataka, by Karen Muldoon-Hules. Reviewed by Reiko Ohnuma, 301-304
The Lotus Sutra: A Biography, by Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Reviewed by Christopher V. Jones, 305-307
The Gathering of Intentions: A History of Tibetan Buddhist Tantra, by Jacob P. Dalton. Reviewed by Sam van Schaik, 308-309
Love Letters from Golok: A Tantric Couple in Modern Tibet, by Holly Gayley. Reviewed by Lucia Galli, 310-312
Right Thoughts at the Last Moment: Buddhism and Deathbed Practices in Early Medieval Japan, by Jacqueline Stone. Reviewed by Ian Astley, 313-315
